Use as many free resources initially to get started. Use simple, yet effective marketing strategies that cost nothing. There are several free hosting services available on the Internet. Visit the WordPress org site to download the software, it will provide you a professional looking website with almost no budget.

If you want to do it yourself, then set up hosting at a site like HostGator or BlueHost. They have quick installs in their CPanel for WordPress and other CMS Platforms. You can have a site up in minutes.

Although free site builders are a great way to build a website on a small budget, I believe most fail to weigh the costs and benefits.

If you're a decent web designer or very ambitious to learn, then these things are great. As long as it's a hobby to you and fun, investing your time into creating your own website is budget-smart and therapeautic.

But as a business owner, will you enjoy web designing? Do you have the time?

With the increasing popularity of these free site builders, professional designers and developers are forced to reduce prices and streamline production in order to stand out from the crowd.

used the free web design tools offered by Yahoo.I have my site hosted through them and they provide the software ( SiteBuilder ) for free.Yahoo also includes a blog tool and several other free services. Since I’m just starting out, this was the best rout for me.I can also go in and add to or change pages of my website without paying someone to make the changes.

3. Decide on a Host, I use HostGator but WordPress recommends Blue Host.

Design

1. Do your research on your target market, and why you want/need a website.

2. Look at sites within your industry & OUTSIDE your industry.

3. Check out copyblogger.com & problogger.net for great advice

Development

I have successfully been using Elance for years. You have to do your research though. You have to look at the providers work history and work samples. The clearer you are & the more detailed your requirements are the better your outcome.

Get a professional to do it on the cheap! mosaicHUB's Marketplace has a great deal on a brand new 3-5 page website that is already SEO optimized and beautifully designed by TSO (The Sterling Organization). They're portfolio and reviews are both incredible, so I'd go check it out ASAP: http://www.mosaichub.com/marketplace/view/strategic-website-design-development

At http://www.50businessarticles.com we are using a combination of InMotion Hosting, GoDaddy and Wordpress. I think it is setting us back around USD 80 per year. But for every subsequent website we create we would only have to pay for the domain from GoDaddy, so maybe around USD 10?

The biggest expenditure is advertising/marketing. We started 50 Business Articles with the idea of keeping it lean but the reality is, no one will see your website if you are not willing to spend a few dollars on advertising/marketing.

Hi to my fellow entrepreneurs,My name is sarah and I have an idea for a productivity app/site wherein the user pays a flat fee of $10 to have a virtual assistant make a phone call on his behalf. Say for example the user wants to find out why his frequent flyer miles weren't credited to his account, but doesn't want to wait on hold until a rep takes the call. As an absolute noob, I don't know if it'd be better to develop this idea as a website, a phone app or both. I really thank you for any ideas!'

There is a huge list of online website builder. They provide free of cost website building and domain name as well. Though it is a sub domain for customized you might have to pay. They even have categories like business, engineering, hobby, shopping. You can select accordingly. You do not need any programming skills in them. I got my structural engineering website from webs.com.
some more sites weebly.com, wix.com
This post was edited by Annya at June 6, 2014 3:23 AM EDT